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Optica Publishing Group
  • Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics
  • OSA Technical Digest (Optica Publishing Group, 1991),
  • paper CFO6

Ultrafast energy switching on a saturable absorptive interface

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Abstract

An ultrafast optical switch or limiter can be obtained from a nonlinear interface between a dielectric and a saturable dye solution, which is based on the dependence of the reflectivity on the input pulse energy.1,2 For a laser beam incident around the critical angle the key facts that make this device attractive are (1) The reflectivity of the interface is very sensitive to any change in the index mismatch (caused by the saturation, for instance), |dR/dn|~103.3 (2) The ratio of the light intensities under and above the interface is significantly bigger than 1, T~4.4 (3) The volume of dye solution to saturate is very small, the evanescent wave depth being d<λ. (4) The sign of the index variation, and therefore the sign of the reflectivity variation, depends on whether the frequency of the incident laser beam is above or below the absorption line center of the dye solution.2 (5) There is no upper limit for the switching speed of this device, unless the incident intensity is high enough to break down the dye molecules. The higher the energy input rate, the faster the device is switched on or off. (6) The device is simple in structure.

© 1991 Optical Society of America

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